The Sin of Anthropocentrism

Maciej TROJAN

Zakład Etologii i Psychologii Porównawczej, Katedra Psychologii, Wydział Humanistyczny, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, ul. Gagarina 11, 87-100 Toruń, Poland , Poland

Julia SIKORSKA

Interdyscyplinarne Centrum Nowoczesnych Technologii, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, ul. Wileńska 4, 87-100 Toruń, Poland , Poland

Abstract

The tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life might be a genetic predisposition of humans. Fields of study such as comparative psychology and ethology are dedicated to identifying and describing the evolutionary processes responsible for the emergence of the human mind and its complex cognitive functions. However, adherence to the anthropocentric worldview turns out an obstacle to this research. The belief that Homo sapiens is a ‘better’ species than others and unique in its kind frequently distorts the scientists’ perception. Indeed, the research data gathered for the last 150 years seems to point to the contrary. Thus, having discovered that our ‘unique’ traits are frequently evolutionary-older and more common in nature than we originally assumed, we need to redefine the human.

Translated by Dorota Chabrajska

Keywords:

biophilia hypothesis, philosophy of nature, the Neanderthal genome, the definition of the human species, evolutionism, Wallace’s problem, the human mind, anthropocentrism, anthropomorphism, mental time travels, language acquisition, comparative psychology, ethology